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. 1990 Jul;125(3):463–474. doi: 10.1093/genetics/125.3.463

Break-Join Recombination in Phage λ

F W Stahl 1, M S Fox 1, D Faulds 1, M M Stahl 1
PMCID: PMC1204074  PMID: 2143162

Abstract

In phage λ, when DNA replication is blocked, recombination mediated by the Red pathway occurs only near the double-chain break site, cos, that defines the termini of the virion chromosome. The recombinants initiated by cos contain newly synthesized DNA near cos, in amount corresponding to a few percent of the length of λ. A restriction enzyme cut delivered to one parent far from cos results in elevated recombination near the restriction site. Recombinants induced by this cut have s similarly small amount of DNA synthesis in these replication-blocked crosses. When restriction cuts are introduced in the presence of normal amounts of all of the DNA replication enzymes, many of the resulting recombinants still enjoy, at most, a small amount of DNA synthesis associated with the exchange event. Thus, these experiments fail to support the previously considered possibility that Red-mediated recombination in λ proceeds largely through a break-copy pathway.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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